Portraits

The number one struggle I have as a photographer is light. The light will never be the right color, the right intensity, or coming from the right angle. As an artist, this will be something I will continue to try to change. If I had all the money in the world I could afford to create light and make it do exactly what I want. However, I don't have all the money in the world and only have a limited number of strobe lights to help me create the scene I'm dreaming up. (This doesn't include the random photoshoots that happen where the right gear is almost never present). With that being said, I'm sure that the gear you're working with isn't that far off from mine and therefore you are in the same boat of the constant struggle that is light.

If diving into the world of Yoga has taught me anything, it's to embrace this moment for what it is and to not try and make it something it's not. The reality is I have limited control of my light and have to use the light I am given to the best of my abilities. A recent shoot played this out perfectly and I'm happy to say that the results from the shoot were more than I had ever imagined. While it's easy to dream up all of the things you don't have or can't do, it's those same limitations that can create the best art.

When light doesn't live up to expectations it's easy to get flustered and freeze in the moment not knowing what to do. The reality is, light, while not equal, is all the same. The rules you have when the conditions are perfect are the same when your light is less than ideal. It starts with figuring out the right exposure, perfecting your white balance and ends with letting your imagination go wild.

For this specific shoot, we wanted an impromptu portrait session on a magical carousel that we found in Midway, Utah. In order to capture the look and feel of the carousel at it's best, we would have to shoot at night when the lights were on. This posed a few issues with finding the right exposure. First, the light on the carousel, while bright to the eye, was much less so to the camera. The low light situation is one of the greatest struggles for photographers. Turning up my ISO was the only option to be able to get a decent baseline and fast enough shutter to keep from blurring the details in the face. While the brightness was there I would have to adjust for the grain that the high ISO would create. For the most case, the photos were dark enough to high a lot of the grain and the rest could be lightened up in post-production. The trick to compensating for too high of an ISO is to open up the aperture and keep a wide frame, allowing more light in. My other option was to get as close to the light as possible to absorb it. You'll see in some of my close-up portraits how the light creates the perfect reflection in the eyes and makes the skin look flawless. The other note I'll make is, just like in the best lighting situation, you always want the light to your back reflecting onto your subject. When your subject gets closer to the light, the light becomes stronger helping you to lower your ISO and not compensate as much for the low light. Keeping your subject close to your light source will give you the best opportunities to make some magic happen.

Once you've figured out your exposure you'll need to clear up your while balance. Usually, when the light is less than ideal it also means that the color of it has changed. Sunset creates orange light, before and after sunset creates blue light and fluorescents create green light, all of these have to be adjusted for. Getting the white balance to be perfect in camera isn't a must but the more that can be done in camera the more time and effort you can save during post-production. Being true to my style I like to stay as close to a white light as possible while keeping a bit of warmth in these photos and usually keeping it a bit cooler in my landscape and outdoor photography.

Once you become comfortable with the light you've been given you'll start to become inspired by it. You loosen up and let go of your concerns about things not being perfect and you embrace what you have. As I got into this shoot, I went from being worried that nothing would turn out, to falling in love with the light I was given and inspired by all that was around me. It just goes to show that there's really no such thing as bad lighting, just the limitations of your imagination.

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How is it already the end of 2017? Apparently, when you get older, time really does move faster. I always enjoy going through my photos at the end of the year to see how much has happened in a year and see where I've grown and what I still need to work on. The end of the year is a time of reflection. I always like to spend time thinking about the areas in my life I want to improve and to come up with a new theme for the following year.

This year has been a remarkable one. It started off with a Birthday in the mountains and ended with me getting engaged to the love of my life. There were definitely some ups and downs throughout the year and a lot of lessons learned, but I'm happy with how it turned out. It's a year that won't easily be forgotten. When it comes to 2018 there are a few more things I'd like to work on, both professionally and personally, to make it an even better year. These are my 2018 resolutions and my favorite photos from 2017!

Peace Of Mind

I struggle with the whole "Slow to anger" thing. This year I'm making yoga and meditation a priority in my daily practice. I want to not only use yoga as a means of exercise but to calm the mind and to focus on breathing. It doesn't stop with yoga, finishing with a longer Shavasana (corpse pose) and focusing on letting go of thoughts and is just as important. Working the body and resting the mind.

The Year Of Creativity

This year I'm working on all things creative. I was trained in drawing and painting and want to get back to doing more of that. In the last year, I created 2 pieces of art and I want to be creating more than that. I also want to spend time on personal photography projects that will help my expand both creatively and as a photographer.

Business Growth

In my last post, I talked about marketing and that's a huge goal for my business this next year. Working on expanding my shop and bringing in more clientele both commercial and portrait. I'm looking at removing some other parts of my business so I can focus on the main components of my brand and really make them grow. There are some hard decisions coming up but ones I'm sure will take my business to the places I want it to go.

And now for the moment, you've all been waiting for. . . as I think of the future it helps to reflect on the past year too and to see how far I've come. With that, here are my favorite photos from this past year!

Visual Storytelling For Brands

Adventure Engagement

Adventure Engagement

The Networking Shoot

Visual Storytelling For Brands

Portrait Photography

Visual Storytelling For Brands

Portrait Photography

Family Photos

Engagement Photos

Visual Storytelling For Brands

Adventure Engagement

Blogger Photography

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My fiance, Clayton, and I have never been your regular couple. We met on the top of a mountain, we love adventure, we believe a weekend snowshoeing is the best date there is and we didn't want your average engagement photos. Don't get me wrong, I've seen some breathtaking engagement photos and I definitely wanted something to capture this time in our lives, but we wanted something that was as different as we were.

We considered doing the adventure photos that I love to take but every time we started thinking up ideas of who we were and what we wanted, it came back to "Leave it to Beaver" styled old fashioned photos. We felt like people would expect us to have amazing photos on cliffs and in the mountains because that sounds so much like us! I kept looking through Pinterest for inspiration but when I found an old photo of Audrey Hepburn and her first husband I knew the kind of engagement photos I wanted.

I've always had an old soul. Equal parts in love with the outdoors and in love with art and fashion. Audrey Hepburn has been my "spirit animal" for as long as I can remember seeing as both those worlds were her world too. She had an undying love for the orphans of Africa, while I still dream of the days I'll return to Africa. She told stories through film and I tell them through photos and drawings. It was easy to see why I've been obsessed with her and having engagement photos modeled after her and the love stories she was a part of (both non-fiction and fiction) only seemed right.

Lucky for me, I have a fiance who is always willing to help out with my creative ideas and took time out of his cooking schedule on Thanksgiving day to run around and re-enact photos. This time, and probably only this time, there wouldn't be an amazing mountain backdrop for our photos.

On a side note, you might be finding some Audrey inspired details at our wedding too!

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The time has come for the dreaded Christmas Card. Except that it doesn't have to be dreaded, instead, it should be a fun thing. With a background in graphic design and as a photographer I love getting to see people's Christmas cards every year. It's a great way to update your friends and families and to provide grandma a photo she can keep on the fridge and show off to her friends. For me, it was a good childhood memory. Every year my parents would have us take a family photo in July, get 200 printed the week before Thanksgiving and have a family night of stuffing all the letters and photos into envelopes. There was also the annual Christmas card letter that my dad would add giving each person in the family a paragraph of their own to update everyone we sent the card out to. Think of it as the original Facebook.

Every year as I see Christmas cards come in there are a few ways that people go wrong. These are my biggest pet peeves when it comes to the annual Christmas card. Stick with this guide and you'll have the best card in the pile, one that will forever live in the minds of your friends and family for a long time and possibly live on Grandma's fridge forever!

Keep Your Christmas Card Short & Simple

The number one way that people go wrong with their Christmas cards is that they include every detail of their lives creating not just a Christmas card but a novel. Keep the font at size 12, don't write edge to edge of the paper but leave room for the margins and keep it to one page or less. A Christmas card is the highlights wheel of your year, we just want to hear about the biggest things that have happened, where your family is at, and how you're doing. If you have a pet or older parents it's a great time to give a status update on them too.

Get Your Christmas Card Designed

My family always went with the classic printed photo inside a 3 fold letter. It wasn't special but it worked. I will admit that the graphic design in my does love a well-designed card. If you're looking for an easy way to get this done check out Artifact Uprising's Christmas Card templates (You get 10% off when you sign up for their newsletter). Looking for a way to save a little more? Check out the variety of options and prices that Shutterfly offers for their Christmas Card designs.

Card Design from Artifact Uprising. Photo by Katie Leigh Photography.

Keep Your Christmas Card Photos Large

You have a beautiful family and you've done some amazing things this year, so I can understand wanting to share all your favorite photos from the last year. Sharing an album of photos should be saved for an album or at least a Facebook album. Your Christmas Card photo should be a single photo or just a few photos. The idea is that the photos are large enough that even grandma can see what's happening in the photo and how everyone looks. Choose the best photo of you and your family and use that. If there's 2-3 that you just can't live without, find a great layout that will highlight all the photos and keep them large. Can't find a photo of everyone? It's time to call in the big guns and create a photo that showcases where everyone is in their lives and tells your current story. If you need help finding a photographer that could do that for you, you're in luck, you happen to be on their website (wink wink!) Learn more about my portrait photography here and see all that you get in a single shoot.

Card Design from Artifact Uprising. Photo by Katie Leigh Photography.

It's never too late to get your family Christmas card photos or to send out your card. My parents were always the first ones to send out their cards every year (everyone got their's by Thanksgiving). But my parents don't have to be you. Sending your card out after Christmas or even as a way to celebrate the New Year is a great option. Celebrate the end of the year by showing your closet friends and family your current story and make it even better by investing in high-quality photos that you'll love to look back on year after year. I'll help tell your story and impress all your friends, just send me a note and tell me what you're looking for!

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It’s no secret, Fall is my favorite season. There’s a lot of reasons for that. The colors that overwhelm the landscapes, the drop in temperature and the clothes that better fit my personality. I’m all about the layers when it comes to dressing in the cold, it’s what 90% of my closet is made up of. I was made for the Fall.

When I build a look, I look for classic pieces that make me feel great and that fit great. I look at fit over sizes and know that a size is just a number. When you feel good, you look good and that’s always more important than getting the size that looks good to you. I also have a very small color pallet when it comes to my closet. Black, gray, blue and maroon are the top colors in my closet. I add more color through accessories which I have WAY too many to count. (They are my favorite part).

For this Fall outfit, I had a bit of a 70’s Beatles thing going on (Who else stands in the middle of random roads???) I found this hat on sale at World Market and couldn’t help but get it. I have a love affair with hats (They are in the accessories category). From there, I built the outfit. Knowing that it was a warmer fall day I stuck with layers, A halter top turtleneck, jeans and a leather jacket. Some classic pieces that you can really switch up to fit any look. I added some hoop earrings my dad got me for my 18th birthday, an antique elephant bracelet I found thrifting and my favorite pair of TOMS. The belt was a great find in a small boutique in California from over 10 years ago. And of course, every outfit I wear is paired with a pair of Revos.

The Fall trees down from my house was the perfect place to capture this Fall look and take advantage of these amazing colors. Blue, while a color I wear year round, is even better in the fall because it stands out against the golden Aspens. When looking for ways to mimic this outfit, I always suggest heading to Marshals, Target or thrift stores. Honestly, that’s where I find about 90’s of my own clothes!

As always feel free to comment or ask questions below. I’m more than happy to share whatever knowledge I might have with you!

I may never get to photograph anyone as attractive as Whitney or Jenny again. At least, that’s what they would tell you. And It’s just that kind of sarcastic humor that makes me love these two. Well, that and the genuine love they have for each other. It was hard not to have a blast through this whole shoot.

Jenny and Whitney met in college where they were both in band together. Jenny was a freshman and Whitney was a senior. While they were close friends a relationship didn’t blossom till years later after Whitney traveled the world and Jenny fell deeper in love with music. They survived the long distance relationship and ended up in Colorado where they are both continuing their educations. (It would be an understatement to say that these are some smart women!)

I took them to Evergreen, CO to find some Fall colors and beautiful landscapes. I had recently stumbled upon these cliffs with a great foothills backdrop and wanted so badly to do a photo shoot there. Jenny and Whitney wanted the colors in their photo but were more than ready to make this whole experience an adventure. A 10-minute hike brought us to the cliff tops which proved to be an amazing place to capture these two. They had a blast climbing on the rocks (making-out) and just being their goofy selves. We found a few different spots that felt natural to who they were and moved on to get their second look.

On the walk back, just as we got to the edge of the forest the light came through the trees in the most magnificent colors. It was like nothing I had ever seen and I couldn’t wait to use it. Jenny and Whitney came together in the most natural way in the forest. Walking together along the path, Hugging and kissing each other and my favorites of being goofy and smooshing each other’s faces. It’s the genuine moments, the moments that are just so them, that are my favorite.

As the sunset, we found a couple more place to capture their love, but mostly I just liked watching them together. They have so much fun just being themselves, and enjoying all the beauty that’s around them. It’s just one more reason to add to the list of why these two are the best!

As someone who loves stories, it is really amazing that I didn’t get into blogger photography sooner. Each session is telling a different story with a stage, a costume, and some guided posing. It’s a whole different kind of fashion photography and portrait work but I love the challenge. Every blogger has a different story to tell with a different style to their brand and I want to help each and every one of them shine.

Denver has a huge growing network of bloggers, it’s one of the reasons I started the Networking Shoot. I want to help bloggers grow their brands and speak to their audiences. Having great photography on their websites is the very first step. To start off I like to get to know a blogger and their reasoning for starting their blog. Knowing more of their story and who they are, helps me better match their story to their audience. I always look for locations that fit their brand and represent them while matching the outfit (you don’t want things to compete, but to compliment). And then, of course, my favorite part, we start shooting.

I let the blogger model start off with some of their usual poses and let us both get comfortable in our roles. The more I can see how they pose and how comfortable they are in front of the camera, the better feel I can get for where to take this shoot. I’ll give instructions for movements, poses or small corrections to make natural looking poses that don’t feel forced but make you feel like you’re right in front of them. Having approachable photos that resonate with the audience is what makes a great blog post.

Cara from Never Skip Brunch was looking to show off a new Fall look in an environment that was a little different from her usual city photos. We drove for over 45 minutes looking for the sunflower fields near DIA (Denver International Airport) and were a little disappointed to find that they were past their prime. However, a sunflower is a sunflower and we weren’t going to miss this opportunity.

Cara had one main outfit with a few accessory changes and a lot of spirit and laughs. Her personality stands out from the masses and she never leaves home without her signature lipstick. Needless to say, Cara knew what she was doing and was a pro at posing and making my job super easy. Every now and then I’d give her a new pose to try or tweak one to make sure she was showing off her best side in every shot.

One of my biggest goals when it comes to blogger photography is to make sure the full story and outfit are shared. I take wide shots that show the whole outfit together along with the background, giving you more of an idea of where she stood and what she was up to. This also sets the scene for where to wear an outfit like this or even tells you a little more about the blogger themselves. In the case of this shoot, the open road and open fields help showcase the season of Fall. They also give the sense of freedom and being a free spirit, which really connected with my idea of Cara. I then get in closer and closer showing individual pieces of the outfit all the way to the details of it (the accessories). I want the bloggers I work with to have enough material to really show off the look on their blog as well as have plenty of photos that stand out individually to share on social media.

My blogger photography is a new addition to Katie Leigh but I’m so excited to be working with bloggers and expanding the term “Lifestyle Brands”. If you’re a blogger looking to get some photography done for your blog feel free to reach out to me or check out what you get in a blogger shoot on my packages page (HERE). As with all my portrait shoots $10 from your shoot will be donated to charity as a way to help create a better story for others too.

I was immediately captivated by Alyssa’s look. She has a style all her own with an attitude to match and is possibly one of the coolest people I’ll ever meet. She stands firm in her beliefs, she’s outspoken about social justice and she has hair like a mermaid. Yup, she’s that cool.

Alyssa wanted portraits that would tell her story. While a solid backdrop has a time and place, this free spirit needed a lot more than some white fabric blocking her in. We explored downtown Denver finding new places to tell her story and capture her essence. We were even lucky enough to be invited to an old church where we could fully embrace the beauty of their stained glass windows.

What is the best way to perfect your craft, grow your business and learn new things? Practice, practice, practice! It’s the age-old truth that to get to where you want to be, you have to keep growing, so that’s what I’ve been working on in the small amounts of free time I have.

An old college friend, who is about to take off for her own adventure of moving to Los Angeles, offered to help me out by modeling for a couple small-town portraits. We met up in downtown Littleton, where small-town charm still exists to play with some light and experiment.

I wanted to capture Kaitie not only in portraits but in some fashion shots, creating images that could be used for catalogs. I brought 1 Speedlight and a softbox with us on this photo shoot along with a couple different size lenses and my Nikon D800. We wanted to keep everything super light and easy to move around with so that we could walk around the town and find different places to shoot.

We found an amazing alleyway with great bricks and an epic doorway. This was probably our favorite spot, not only because of the great backdrop but the privacy made things a little easier for Kaitie and allowed for her to come out of her shell more. Around the corner, we found the world’s smallest park and made use of the winding pathway and the little green the pre-Spring grass had to offer.
All-in-all we had a blast experimenting with light, playing with poses, props and locations and of course learning what we could with what we had. Taking the time to make small projects for yourself that force you to better your craft and learn more things is the fastest way to ensure that you’re growing and a great way to build a portfolio.

They’ve been growing as musicians for over a year now, perfecting their sound, adding members and fine-tuning their skills. I know this because Clayton is the drummer. Hundreds of hours have gone into the creation of this band, and choosing the name, probably took 3 months – some good suggestions and some really terrible ones. But after a year of hiding away keeping most everything they do a secret, they are finally breaking into the world. Starting with a video in the“Tiny Desk” competition and now scheduling gigs, Frequency Response is making their debut and I’m excited to share the first images that give visuals to their sound and energy.

While there are still many details to work out for their finalized band look and album shoot they wanted to get the ball rolling with photos to post to social media and start making their presence in the music scene. We started with an in-studio photo shoot to show off what these guys are really all about – the sound. From set-up to sound checks to finally getting to hear their music, you could tell that these guys know music and care about all the details

I floated around the room for the first half of their in-studio practice trying to capture their instruments as well as getting them in action. I Focused more on the individual members and instruments and finding the details that you might miss if you were seeing them live. I stuck with a single flash and my 50mm lens to get all the images for this basic shoot. While we have another shoot in the works in the coming months for their album photos that will better represent who they are as a band, these photos were a great way to introduce them to the music scene.

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Into The Wild

“The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” – Into The Wild